L4D: Addition
by The-British-Lassie
Summary: On her way to the Safe-House, Zoey get's lost and follows her gut instinct until she finds the Savannah Survivors, they let her stay with them until they find Louis and Francis. But in the end, will Ellis be willing to let her go?
1. To Accept or Decline

"Hello?" Zoey called out into the night "Anyone... hello? Please! I'm all alone! Somebody! Anybody!" she once again called. But only silence replied. Zoey had lost count of how many hours it had been since she had been separated from Louis and Francis because of that Tank. She was just lucky it didn't come after her otherwise she would have been Zombie Soup. The brunette continued walking along the abandoned and cracked roadway, that had cars literally topped on each other and corpses lying around.

_I just hope I don't set off a horde of Zombies to come after me... or anything worse... _she thought to herself _I just hope that the Tank hasn't killed Francis or Louis, not after what happened to Bill... I knew I shouldn't have legged it away! Even though they told me to run I should have stayed! That's what friends do! _She scolded herself in her thoughts. Zoey got lost in her imagination, daydreaming about her wonderful past, well... it wasn't that wonderful having to study everyday and not having many friends to hang around with... but it was certainly better than what was happening now. She began to wonder if the Zombies would die out, she wondered would she ever see the world turn back to normal again, and would humanity somehow re-populate and create a better civilisation. But the chances of that were highly doubtful, but if you put enough thought, effort and planning into it, it could be possible it could happen. As she walked on, Zoey came across a building, but strangely she stopped right by the doorway of it, the young female looked up at the bordered windows, and could see light peeking through the tiny uncovered holes; surely somebody had to be there if there was a candle lit or something. Zoey approached the door her hand shook as she reached out for the metal handle; it was slightly warm, as if somebody, recently, had a tight grip on it.

She slowly and carefully opened the door and entered the building, but the only thing in front or beside her was a stairway that led up to the top half of the building, there was no bottom floor at all. To prevent any infected from getting in, she closed the door and got out her pistols. Zoey quietly crept up the stairs with her two lethal weapons sticking right in front of her _If there is any infected here... I'll be screwed _she thought. As she reached the landing at the top of the stairs, she heard faint talking _Survivors?... _she hoped in her head. Eventually, she had the guts to speak out in case she was just hearing things "H-hello? is there any survivors in here?" she asked.

"... Did y'all hear that..." one voice faintly said "... sounds like a girl..."

"... Great, did one of those crying bitches learn how to speak human..." another, but this time a rather, unimpressed and frustrated voice said. Zoey clearly heard what the last voice said, but tried to ignore that she heard it.

"If there are any survivors... I'm immune... 100% immune..." Zoey stated, as she held her weapons out, she stood still and scanned the room with her eyes, as she did, she caught the sight of a door-knob being turned, and eventually a door opening, out of the doorway, peeped a big, black, bald man, that seemed to be wearing a purple t-shirt, a black belt and light brown trousers with dirt and water stains at the bottom, this wasn't just any man, it was a man she recognised and helped earlier in her travels, his name was Coach.

"... Young'un?" he asked, looking at her.

"... Coach?" she replied.

"Man! What the hell are you doin' here" he asked in a happy and suprised tone.

"I-I got lost, and... I saw a light peeping through a uncovered hole in the bordered up windows... I thought Louis and Francis would be here-"

"Who is it Coach?" a voice interrupted her.

Coach looked back into the room.

"It certainly ain't a crying bitch that's learned how to talk, that's for sure" he replied.

"You mean? It's a survivor?" a female voice seemed to cry out in joy. The others immediately rushed out of the room and saw poor Zoey just standing there, looking like a complete heap.

"Rochelle… Nick... Ellis?" Zoey calmly said in surprise "You're here too?"

"Well, it looks like we're here don't it?" Nick stated in a sarcastic manner.

"Honey, what on earth are you doing all the way out here? I thought you were supposed to be heading in the opposite direction" Rochelle beamed.

"Well, you see, me, Francis and Louis were on a boat, and well... the boat we were sailing on kind of sunk because a tank threw a rock at it... so we had to swim back to shore... and you see... the tank chased us, Louis and Francis told me to run to the safe house and said that they'll meet me there within a matter of time, but I got lost..." Zoey explained.

"And I'm presuming you went with your gut instinct and wandered anywhere until you found us" Rochelle finished her sentence. Zoey nodded and wiped the sweat off her forehead.

"But..."

"But what?"

"But... I don't know if they made it out alive or not... and I can't find or hear them"

"Okay, well, we're staying here for the night you can join us and we'll help you find you're friends in the morning?" Rochelle offered.

"... Really? I'd love to, but I'd hate to be a bother-"

"Listen, I don't usually agree with this sort of stuff, but I think _you should_ stay here" Nick added "Besides, I'm sure Ellis here will keep ya company" he laughed. Ellis elbowed Nick and shot him an unimpressed look.

"Okay, but, what happens if you can't find them?" Zoey sadly asked, everyone stood silent, that was until Ellis spoke up.

"If we can't find 'em, y'all can stay 'ere with us" he said in his deep southern accent. Everyone quietly laughed at Ellis, and Rochelle stood forward and held out her hands.

"Okay" she laughed "but first, I'm gonna have to wash those clothes, nobody likes dirty clothes".

Zoey tightly clutched the arm of her jacket and hesitated "But... they're the only thing I have, what else am I gonna wear?" she nervously asked.

"Good question, because while I wash your clothes you're gonna go in the bath... or at least have a shower"

"Uh... I'm fine, really, having to swim back from the sinking boat is a good enough bath for me"

"Honey, that's dirty sea water, you need a _proper _bath, something that will refresh you" Rochelle corrected her.

"... I guess you're right..." she nervously giggled.

"Hey, whether you're scruffy or clean, you still look better than Nick!" Ellis yelled out to Zoey, cheering her up.

Zoey strolled down the hallway and entered into the bathroom, closed the door and stripped her clothes off, she slightly cracked the door open, and passed her clothes to Rochelle, once again she closed the door, and untied her hair, her thick brown hair immediately bounced down to the bottom of her shoulder. She ran the shower, and stood in it, surprisingly she thought the water would be cold and icy, which in fact it wasn't, it was actually quite warm. Zoey grabbed a bottle of shampoo, and rubbed it into her hair, then rinsing it.

She repeated this several times, then washed her body with a bottle of shower gel, not knowing that she had been in there for nearly a full hour, she decided to get out and turned off the shower. Luckily there was one towel left on the rack, she picked it up and tightly wrapped it around her whole body. On the sadder note, Rochelle had not finished cleaning her clothes, Zoey opened the door but only very slightly and yelled out for Rochelle to pass her clothes.

"Sorry sweetie, I thought you'd be in a lil' longer, i'm not finished with them yet"

"Is there anything I can wear apart from a towel or a blanket?"

"Uh, not really, sorry" Rochelle replied. _This is the most embarrassing situation I've ever been in... especially since the others can hear what i'm shouting _Zoey thought _It's either I come out now, or I stay in here for another hour or so... _

Zoey tied her wet, clean and shiny hair back in the pony tail she originally had it in. Then she remembered, the white tank top she had underneath her jacket, that was crystal white, especially since she had never took her jacket off, so it couldn't off had blood and zombie insides splattered all over it.

"Well, can you at least pass me my white tank top, I've never had my jacket off so it's not marked with dirt" she asked.

"Sure thing... Ellis, sweetie! can you hand Zoey her tank top?"

"TANK! WHERE?" he screamed.

"N-no! Ellis! her Tank-TOP, her tank top" the african-american women repeated. _Phssssssh, he's so funny when he's daydreaming and not paying attention _she thought. Ellis got up from the sofa he had been sitting on and Rochelle handed him her top, and he walked towards the door, but looked down the hallway and handed her the white top she thanked him and pulled the top over her head, with the towel wrapped now only around her waist. Now she had to wait until her trousers had been cleaned.

Eventually, after all the waiting had finished, her trousers had been cleaned along with her jacket, by this time, she was already dry from head to toe and was no longer wet. She changed into her trousers, but left her track jacket off and entered the room where the others were.

"Feelin' any better?" Rochelle asked. Zoey nodded her head back and forth "See, told you taking a nice clean shower would refresh you"

"Yeah, um, listen, I didn't thank you properly for letting me stay... So, thanks"

"Hey, no problem, any survivor we come across is welcome to stay... as long as they seem immune and not crazy" Coach bellowed in his deep manly voice.

"Yeah, also, since you're with us now, you have to do _whatever we say_" Nick added.

"What?"

"You heard me kid... _whatever we say..._"

"No fair! just because _I _joined _you're _group, doesn't mean i'm now you're slave!"

"Leave her alone Nick, jus' cause she's new don't mean y'all can go and make fun o' her!" yelled Ellis.

"He makes fun of everyone boy," Coach stated.

Rochelle lightly laughed at them arguing "Look's like Ellis and Zoey are gonna get on _real good_" she giggled. Ellis' cheeks slowly burned up red knowing that Rochelle, Coach and Nick knew his secret that he had a crush on Zoey he considered it love at first sight.

Just then, Zoey stretched her arms out, yawned and rubbed her eyes, it had been a unusual and tiring night for her, and she was definitely ready for some sleep, "it's been an unusual day for you hasn't it? you better catch up on your beauty sleep, 'cause we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow" Rochelle explained.

"- Whoa, whoa, whoa! hold up! there's only 3 rooms, and we have 5 of us here" Nick interrupted.

"That's alright, Coach can have the first room, I can have the middle room and Zoey and Ellis can share the last room"

"And where do you expect me to sleep Rochelle?"

"On the sofa with your lousy personality"

"... lousy personality my ass..." Nick mumbled underneath his breath.

"Uh, does this mean I have to share a bed?" Zoey nervously but kindly asked.

"Oh, no! of course not!" laughed Rochelle "there's two beds in the room you're sharing". _Wow, for a second there I thought I'd have to share beds with him, jeez, that would be so embarrassing _Zoey thought. Without knowing, Zoey's face had an expression of surprise and relief, which Nick silently laughed at, Rochelle saw suit laughing and told him to shut up. Zoey once again yawned, she was extremely tire due to fighting Zombies all the time. "You're more tired than I expected, if you don't get some sleep you're gonna end up looking like poor Rochelle here" Nick joked on. Zoey expected Rochelle to instantly snap back, but instead of taking it seriously she just laughed along with him just like the others did. These people weren't as bad as she expected, even though they seemed nice back at the bridge, she thought they were just putting on a big act to try and fool them. Well, she didn't think that about Ellis when she first met him, she had the same thoughts of him as she did now. "Well, I better be off to bed" she said walking down the hallway into the room she was sleeping in. The others agreed with her and left Nick to patrol the building and to fend off any infected, especially special infected.

The room she was sleeping in was about the size of any bedroom and inside it was two bed's with a thick blanket neatly folded on each one and two comfy pillows. Luckily there was only small windows fixed in, so no infected could break in or get out. Soon after she entered the room, Ellis came strolling in after her, he had a calm and tranquil expression on his face, but inside, his heart was pounding just being beside her would send him crazy in love. "Uh, Zoey, is it... um, is it alright if I, uh shut the door?" he stuttered.

Just as Zoey lay down in bed she sat back up.

"Sure, I can't really sleep with the door open either... drafts come through" she confirmed.

"...Um, this might sound a lil' weird but... can I take me shirt off 'n all?" he nervously asked.

Zoey froze for a second, but then had the guts to speak out.

"Uh, 'course you can..." she anxiously replied.

"Oh, uh... thanks, 'cause I just don't want you to be uncomfortable 'n that, plus I also have to sleep with my shirt off, I've done it since I was lil' kid" he bashfully explained "but I just want to make sure you're okay with that"

"I'm fine with it" she simply said. Ellis nodded and weakly smiled at her, within a matter of seconds, his shirt was off and only is bare chest was showing. Skilfully he managed to remove his top without knocking off his blue and white trucker cap.

Zoey couldn't help but stare at his torso she was expecting it to be all bruised and battered with scratches all over, when in fact, it was nothing like that. His chest was actually the complete opposite of that; she also couldn't help but notice he had a small two-pack ab on him. Ellis soon caught Zoey staring at his upper body, but all he did was simply gaze back until she noticed. Eventually she did come to realize that he was aware of her staring at him. Zoey could feel her cheeks quickly getting redder and redder. So, to avoid the embarrassment, she lay down in bed and soon dozed off into a deep sleep.

* * *

**Authors Notes: So, this is my first chapter of Addition, what do you think of it? in my opinion I think it's _pretty _good. I assure you the next chapter will be up in a few day's or weeks depending on what I can think of can happen next, I have a slight idea on what to write, I just need to develop the idea a bit more.**

**~ The-British-Lassie (A.K.A. Rachel)**


	2. On with the journey!

The next morning, small beams of light shone through the small window that was fixed into a cracked and pale coloured wall, causing Zoey to wake up from an imaginative, happy and unrealistic world filled with only the things only a miracle could make. But no miracle, no matter how good or bad it was, could fix this problem, _nothing_ could fix the _Zombie Apocalypse._

It had only been a few minutes until Zoey strolled down the hallway and into the kitchen where she saw Nick, Coach and Ellis sitting around a small, wooden, and circular shaped table whilst Rochelle was making breakfast. The delightful aroma of eggs and toast travelled through her nose as she sniffed upwards, and by the looks of it, it sounded like it was nearly ready to be dished out. Just then, Nick had eventually noticed her standing by the doorway. "You certainly took you're time didn't you" he said in a huff. The young female college student just stood there in astonishment, having no idea why he had suddenly snapped at her. At that moment, just when she was about to speak Coach opened his mouth and began to talk "Ignore him youn'un, he's just cranky 'cause he didn't get much sleep because he stood on patrol nearly all night" the big man explained.

"Like, what time is it?"

"Well, by the position of the sun, I'd say it's about quarter to nine in the morning"

"Quarter to nine! Me, Louis and Francis would have left way before now!" she almost yelled in shock.

"Yeah, and that's probably why you're tired so much, having almost no sleep and leaving real early" Rochelle interrupted her "But that's enough of that, the_ real_ question we should be asking is did _you _snooze alright?"

"Yeah, I got a full 8 hours"

"And was Ellis alright? He wasn't being stupid or anything was he?" butt in Coach.

"Yeah, Ellis was fine, he was real quiet too, never known anyone like it" replied Zoey. Instantly Coach, and Rochelle stood absolutely gobsmacked, never had Ellis been quiet, not even a bit, he was always the one blabbering on about him and his buddy Keith fooling around and telling weird stories similar to that. But the only one that wasn't like Rochelle and Coach, was Nick. He knew Ellis had a huge crush on Zoey since the day they met, and now was the perfect time to humiliate him in front of her, oh how he enjoyed doing it.

"_Really?_" Rochelle asked unconvinced that Zoey was telling the truth

"Uh, yeah, honest to god" Zoey replied.

"So, he said nothing... no Keith stories? No anything?" Rochelle once again asked, the college student slowly nodded her head "Well that's a surprise, a very big surprise".

"Why? Is it not like him to be quiet?"

"Hardly!" Nick butted in "he's never like that! It's just he's probably never been so close to a girl in his life!" suit yelled out, almost laughing. Ellis had never been so embarrassed in his life; he was so embarrassed he was too scared to even say anything, so he just simply kept silent and stared down at the table.

Zoey eventually decided to join them at the table, there was a spare seat in between Nick and Ellis and another one beside Coach, presuming it was for Rochelle, Zoey sat alongside Ellis, which didn't help with his nerves at all. "I'm guessing you're hungry?" Rochelle guessed.

"I don't know shit, but what I do know is, that I'm starving" Coach bellowed

"For Christ sakes Coach, we've already something to eat" Nick said unimpressed "besides she was asking cupcake here-"

"Don't call me that" she ordered him

"What?"

"I said don't call me that"

"Call you what?"

"That"

"What?"

"That! _Cupcake! _Don't call me that" she almost yelled in frustration

"Why not?"

"_Because it's pathetic,_" she said in an un-amused way, almost mocking him. It was just then when Rochelle set out a plate in front of her, on it was two small bacon rashers and one slice of bread, it wasn't much, but at least she was thankful that she had something to eat. Zoey wolfed the breakfast down in no less than 5 minutes, pretty quick when you come to think about it "Man, I ain't never seen anyone eat as fast as that before, well no-one apart from Keith, because this one time he had like a eating competition with his brother Paul, and well, they both each had loads of food, man, the food was almost bigger than the plate and-"

"Ellis, is now seriously the best time?"

"Well, I jus' thought since we ain't doin' nothin' or preparin' for anythin' I thought I may as well say something to spice up the conversation to prevent us bein' bored" he quickly explained, he almost forget that Zoey was there until she spoke up, he froze and once again he became as quiet as a mouse.

"I see what you mean when you said he's hardly ever quiet" Zoey laughed.

"Mm-hmm," Rochelle hummed "Now imagine what it's like being with him 24/7"

"Heh, actually if I was in your position, I wouldn't mind being around him all the time, I mean, I get bored easily but I'm also easily amused, and besides his stories are kinda interesting" Zoey admitted. Okay, now, Nick was gobsmacked, yet Ellis was as well, never and I mean _never _had anybody taken interest in his stories not even in the slightest bit. _She likes my stories? Man, what should I say now? _He thought, just before he managed to say something Coach butted in.

"Excuse me for butting in y'all, but I think we better high tail it outta here and start to be on the lookout for that Biker and Louis, but New Orleans will have to wait"

"Fine, but first of all, where are we going?"

"Good question Nick, I've been to this place before when I was a young'un like you, and I remember not too far from here there's a watch tower, now, this tower has the view of the whole city, plus it has binoculars that have incredible sight, if we get up there, I'm sure we have a good chance of finding Zoey's friends"

"Right, that's settled, how long do you think it will take us to get there?"

"Uh, about 4 hours"

"4 hours? Are you serious? It's sounds pretty far to me! The sun will almost be setting by then! Plus! I can't walk that long!" Nick angrily complained.

"Have you got a better idea?"

"In fact! I, uh... I... um... no, no I don't"

"Then shut up,"

"But Coach, what happens if you can't find them? Where will you go then?" Zoey asked.

"Let's just see what happens first before we jump to conclusions Zoey, by the way, it's not 'you', it's 'we' now, when you're with our group you're a part of it" Rochelle explained. Zoey just nodded and smiled, she got up from her chair, grabbed her red and white track jacket and put it on. But strangely, she felt as if something was missing, something important; she couldn't quite put her finger on it until she saw Nick picking a gun up. That's it! It was her two pistols that were missing from the counter.

"Has anyone seen my pistols?" she asked. Coach, Rochelle and Nick all shook their heads, but it was just then when Ellis came over carrying them along with a spare ruby red health kit.

"H-here they are" Ellis nervously stuttered holding them out in front of her "I took the liberty of c-cleaning them up for you,"

"Oh, thank you"

"I also got you a spare health kit, y'know, 'cause you didn't have one" he bashfully said. Zoey smiled at him, she could tell he was nervous, but she didn't think too much of it. As she went to take the items off him, her hand accidently swept against his, his whole body stiffened with anxiety which caused him to clumsily drop everything. "Oh! Uh! Sorry... lemme just get them back for ya" he said, whilst quickly crouching down to retrieve the items, he once again handed them to her, in the end, he couldn't help but laugh at himself and neither could Zoey. The college student placed the first aid kit on her back and made sure it was firmly attached to her, and loaded her weapons with strong, led bullets "Ready guys?" she asked.

"Yup"

"Hell yeah"

"Sure"

"I'm ready to kill some sons of bitches any time, any day" replied Ellis.

"Great, let's go then, lead the way Coach" Zoey said. So he did, Coach led the way, he knew the city better than anyone else did, but that was only because he had been there before and they hadn't. Plus it was also because he knew where the watch tower was.

The 5 survivors kicked down the entrance door, and re-entered the city of the walking dead, well, walking infected. Now, they knew for a fact they couldn't turn back, they knew they had to keep on going, and face whatever blocked their way.


	3. Into the Tower We Go!

After all the walking the survivors did, and of course running, it wasn't too long before they were to reach the watch tower. Coach, who was leading the way, was now following Nick, along with Rochelle and Ellis. But despite all the sleep Zoey had gotten, she was still lacking behind; in fact, she was the one that was right at the back of the pack, kind of like a lone wolf, but lone wolf's always have a mysterious beauty to them, and Ellis could certainly see that. He wanted to talk to her so much, but why was it so difficult? Was it because Nick humiliated him earlier? Or was it just because he would stutter and Zoey would understand how he felt about her? And the only woman he could speak to without hesitating was Rochelle, and that's exactly who he went to.

"Uh, Ro?"

"What's up Ellis?"

"I know this might seem a bit stupid 'n stuff, but, err, you think I should go 'n talk to Zoey or summit.

Y'know, to keep her company and all?"

"I don't see why not, I mean, earlier she did say your adventures and stories about Keith are interesting, I'm pretty sure you could lift her spirits"

"Really?"

"Sweetie, there's nothing a girl likes more than being in a sweet conversation with an interesting boy" Rochelle explained.

"I-I'm, uh, interesting?"

"Well, you may be to her, now go on! You ain't gonna change anything by talking to me"

"Thanks man" Ellis replied, he was just about to run off when something else more important occurred to him "Uh, one more thing, what happens if she asks how old I am? What happens if she's like only a 18 year old teen or somethin' and I'm like 23?" he panicked.

"Well whatever you do, don't lie to her, tell her the truth"

"Okay, oh and what shall I say?" he asked again. Rochelle heavily sighed.

"Just ask her how she's doing and other stuff similar to that! Now go!" she quickly said shooing him off. So, just like Rochelle said, Ellis took her advice and waited for Zoey to catch up so he could walk alongside of her. Ellis had a mixture of emotions crazily bouncing around in him, there was so many he wasn't even sure if some of them were even real. But the main ones he felt were: Excitement, Nervousness, Embarrassment and Love. He took a moment to think of what exactly what he would say if anything had backfired.

"Uh, hey Zoey, um, how you feelin'?" he nervously asked. Zoey looked at him calmly, yet she was somewhat surprised that he had just suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

"I'm good..."

"Uh, you sure? You, um, don't look it to me"

"Well..." she stopped and paused. Ellis was eagerly waiting for her response, instead she just shook her head "it's nothing"

"Um, okay... uh, by the way, I jus' wanna say sorry about, well y'know, earlier"

"Sorry for what?"

"For humiliating you of course, well actually it was Nick but, I still wanna say sorry"

"But, you didn't humiliate me, not to be rude but _**you **_were the one that was humiliated"

"Heh, I, um... I knew that" he stuttered. Unfortunately, talking to her was harder than he expected, guess he didn't really have back-up plan after all. But he wasn't ready to give up yet. "So Zoey, where do ya come from?"

"Pennsylvania"

"Oh shit man, really?" Ellis surprisingly said "Man! Must have been _real _scary livin' there"

"Scary?"

"Well, yeah, I mean, it must have been scary coming from a place where wolf men, vampires and other terrifying creatures live and shit"

Zoey paused a moment to think, Pennsylvania didn't seem scary, but that's when something else clicked into her mind, "Don't you mean Transylvania" she corrected him.

"Oh yeah! Damn, I always get them two mixed up" he laughed at himself.

Then, just as Zoey was going to open her mouth to ask a question, something interrupted her, it sounded like a sad, emotional, female cry. "Is that a Witch I hear?" she stated. Nick nodded, but since it was during the day, he knew it would be a wandering Witch. He sent a quick gesture for the others to quietly follow him, and so they did, as they silently crept around abandoned cars and wrecked buildings, the crying finally got louder and clearer, and the special infected was in sight. "I can hear her cry... but where is she?" Zoey asked. Ellis looked surprised.

"... She's right there..." he responded, pointing to where she was.

" But that's a normal Zombie"

"... But it ain't, that's a Wanderin' Witch... "

"You mean, they walk?" she enquired in shock. Ellis shook his head and confirmed.

"... You ain't seen one of 'em before?..."

"No, only the sitting ones"

"... Well, these ones only wander durin' the day and they're more difficult to startle, but they wander anywhere so they're kinda hard to avoid" Ellis explained. As the survivors stealthily jogged around the mutated infected, it stayed completely calm and un-affected by their presence. Fortunately, the path they followed led them into an alleyway, and where there is an alleyway there is always a ladder of some sort that they could get them to safety on the roofs.

Despite the fact it was during the day, inside the alleyways, it was dark and seemed like it was night-time. Graffiti had nearly taken over all the brick-walls that they had passed, and not just the art type, there was all other sorts like warning signs and jokes. The most popular ones that Zoey had came across the most was 'NONE OF YOU WILL SURVIVE' and 'CEDA SUCKS' another one she happened to come across, which in fact was one of her favourites was 'GOD IS DEAD'. She wasn't an atheist or anything, she just happened to find it funny in a strange way. Not knowing why, she ran her fingers across the rough and cold, brick surface; strangely, she could feel the sadness, it was like she was experiencing what the walls had saw, and to be honest, it wasn't a pretty sight. They had finally nearly came to the end of the long alleyway when until they spotted ladders that led to the rooftops, Ellis quietly observed what Zoey was doing until they both heard Rochelle's voice. "Up these ladders, we'll be safer on the rooftops" she said, whilst climbing up and following Nick, the others done exactly what she had said and then Coach spoke "That's it... that's the watch tower" he said. They all looked up into the centre of the city "Now all we have to do is get to through the gates"

"Gates?" Nick curiously asked

"Yeah, but when we open it, an alarm will go off"

"You didn't say anything about an alarm Coach,"

"Yeah, well at least it didn't take us 4 hours to get here; anyway, once we get up there, I presume there will be a Safe-Room or something inside of it" Coach explained.

"That's cool, but, can we at least take a 5 minute break now or somethin', I'm all bummed out 'cause of that walking?" Ellis asked.

"We can't stop now boy, beside, the sooner we get up there, the sooner we can find Zoey's friends-"

"That's if they're there" Nick rudely butted in.

"Hey man, have you ever noticed we haven't ran into _any_ infected yet, apart from that crying bitch?" Ellis stated, completely changing the subject.

"Yeah, maybe when the army bombed they got rid of all of them" Nick presumed.

"Maybe so, but I'm sure we'll find that out once we trigger the gate alarm, these infected have the hearing of a hawk... or is that eagle?" Rochelle said.

"I'm pretty sure it's a hawk Ro, but then again nearly every bird has fantastic hearing" Ellis tried to correct her.

"Hey guys, I just wanted to say that I agree with Coach, and I think we should keep on moving" Zoey nicely, but impatiently said. Coach nodded his head in agreement, and once again led the way.

As the survivors trotted along the flat, concrete, cracked rooftops, they came across a hole in one of the roof's, and surprisingly they could hear the sounds of moaning infected, Coach dropped down the hole first, then Zoey, then Rochelle, and then Ellis and Nick. They all got their weapons out at the ready, waiting to kick some infected ass. Zoey reloaded her pistols and held them both out in front of her; she steadily walked down the hallway whilst crouching down. As she walked down the hall, she passed a room with no door on it; she didn't think much of it and continued walking. Unexpectedly, a pale white, blood covered zombie sprinted out of the room and went to attack her. Zoey panicked for a second; lucky for her Rochelle was behind her holding a frying pan and just before it managed to reach Zoey... _SPANG! _Over the head. The limp and lifeless body fell to the ground twitching and groaning, just to be sure it was actually dead, Zoey used her pistol and sent a bullet into its skull; parts of the brain and blood spewed out onto the carpet and created a massive, bloody puddle that stained on the floor. "Like, thanks" she said, showing her gratitude. "No problem sweetie," Rochelle welcomed her. They continued walking; now actually checking all the rooms that they had passed.

Eventually, more infected started showing up, it was just like when Zoey had to fight her way through a series of apartments to get to Mercy Hospital. "You know what, this reminds me of the time when me, Francis, Louis and Bill had to travel through a series of apartment rooms to get to this hospital" Zoey told them. Straight away Ellis was interested, not only because she was speaking, it was also because she was telling a story, just liked to do.

"Seriously, what happened when ya got there?" Ellis asked

"I can't remember everything since it was ages ago, but I do remember that we had to get to the rooftop to wait for the helicopter that was coming to rescue us, but while we were waiting we had to fight like 2 Tanks and several huge hordes of zombies"

"Must have been hard, considering you were on a rooftop" Rochelle added

"Yeah, we had to be really sure we didn't fall off, despite the fact zombies were coming from everywhere, cornering you and Tanks can just throw you over the ledge" Zoey said, almost laughing "But the funniest thing about it all was when Bill trapped a hunter in a doctor's office, the stupid hunter kept on trying to get out, every time it pounced at the door you could hear it shout in pain 'cause it kept on pouncing head-first into the door, so basically you could say it was unaware it was head-butting itself" she laughed.

"That's pretty cool, but, who's Bill?" Nick asked. Suddenly, Zoey's laughter quickly faded into silence, you could tell by how quickly she reacted it was a sad silence. A saddened frown invaded her cheery smile, her whole facial expression changed from happy and full of life to sad and heartbroken. She stopped walking and slowly looked down at the fluffy blue carpet that covered all the rooms and hallways of the apartment.

"... Just this guy..." she quietly replied. At first Ellis thought this Bill guy might have been her boyfriend which had been infected or something like that, that was until he put more thought into it. He eventually remembered Louis saying something after he killed a Tank 'That was for Bill!' or something similar along the lines of that, then he remembered the room beside the generator, it had a body of an old man inside of, he was dressed exactly like a veteran he recalled reading one of the golden badges which was pinned to his green jacket. It read:

**'This badge is awarded to:**

**Bill**

**For bravery, courage and**

**Excellent leadership skills'**

Ellis figured out not to say anything, in case he would upset Zoey even more, so he figured he would wait until Nick, Coach and Rochelle weren't around so he could comfort and talk to her in private. "Guys, I reckon we should keep on movin' ahead" Ellis said, shooing them off to carry back on walking.

It wasn't long until they had exited out of the apartments and got to the gate which Coach had told them about. "Great, we're here, now all we need to do is sound the alarm, fend off the zombies and get up into the tower"

"There's probably a control panel inside the tower, so don't forget that we have to switch the alarm off and close the gates when we get inside" Zoey added. They all nodded and Nick walked towards a wall. On the wall was a switch mounted onto it, Suit examined the switch, and on it was a big lever with a red handle, he read what was on it "_Pull Lever to activate gate_" Nick, carried out the instruction and pulled the lever "Okay guys, i've pulled the switch get ready!" he warned. The other survivors took notice of his caution, knowing they'd be in for a hell of a fight, but it's not like they haven't done this before, plus having an extra member on the team for a while increased their strength as a group.

All of a sudden a big clunk came from the gate as it started to process open, it wasn't anything bad, it was just the fact the gates hadn't been opened for quite a while. It wasn't too long before the ear-piercing screams of the infected could be heard, and just by the sounds of it, they didn't seem that too far away. They all had their weapons out at the ready, and when the sight of the first zombie came around the corner, they were all prepared. It was almost as if it were out of nowhere a huge... I mean, immense horde of zombies came after them; Ellis swung out his axe and decapitated several infected, 15 at the most, and he kept on doing this, however the gate was only a quarter of the way open, still not enough for them to get through. Zoey however remembered that she had something, she felt her pocket and inside of it was a spare pipe bomb, and she was pretty sure that it was an essential time to use it. "Throwing a pipe bomb!" she yelled as she tossed it into the air. The device beeped and a small red light flashed on and off, the infected straight away withdrew their attention off the lively survivors and quickly onto the destructive weapon. A massive horde surrounded the pipe bomb as soon as it hit the ground, unlucky for them they didn't know what it would do next, the beeping of the weapon started to get faster and faster, until... _BOOM! _The bomb exploded. Zombie's bodies flew everywhere along with blood and guts and hit the ground. It seemed like time flew by, and the gates were now ¾ quarters of a way open, it was enough for them to fit through the gate, almost immediately after the survivors turned around green, a deformed, tall, long-necked woman wearing a bra, blue ripped, tight, skinny jeans with almost no jaw popped from around the corner of the tower, green liquid ran down the woman's mouth and just before Zoey had a chance to get closer to examine the beast, it spat green liquid from out of its mouth and straight onto the ground where Zoey's feet were.

Zoey cried out in pain, and fell to the ground, now lying in the acid she was standing in, Coach ran up to it and shot it several times before its limp and lifeless body knocked down to the ground, acid also surrounding her corpse. Ellis rushed over and was the first to help Zoey; he lifted her up off the ground whilst the acid faded away into the cement "Hey, you alright girl?" he asked.

"Yeah... ugh, what the hell was that thing?"

"They're called Spitters 'cause they spit acid out at 'cha, you ain't ever seen one before?"

"Nope" she replied, shaking her head.

"Shit, that's a surprise; we've seen a load of 'em before..."

"I've never seen one in my life..."

"Well, the main thing is that you're still alive, burns like hell don't it, and you think you'll be able to walk considering that acid knocked you down into it?"

"Hey, it's gonna take a lot more than that to take me down," she said. Ellis smiled at her knowing that what she said would be true. Just as they were about to carry on walking Rochelle called for them to hurry up, so they walked up the 30 flights of stairs, climbed up several ladders that lead them to a hatch door, and before they knew it, they were into the top of the tower.


	4. Friendship Bonding

A few hours later, when the survivors had closed the gate and checked the whole city out for Francis and Louis using the binoculars, they had found nothing and eventually given up. It was soon getting dark, so they decided to go to a nearby Safe-House to rest for the night.

Considering Zoey didn't find Louis and Francis, she was filled with sadness and guilt, she felt as if she shouldn't have left them, I mean, what if that Tank did get them? Meanwhile, Nick, Rochelle and Coach were sitting down on a long couch opposite Zoey and Ellis who were both sitting on a small one-seated sofa each.

"I'm bored" Nick said.

"Why don't we do something together, the all of us?" Rochelle suggested

"Like what"

"Maybe a game of truth or dare of something" she replied.

"Truth or dare sounds like my type of game, let's do it, whose gonna go first?" Nick asked. Straight away Ellis tried to leave the room, knowing that one of the dares would include him and Zoey, and boy as much as he wanted it to happen, he was just too embarrassed. "Hey Overalls, where do you think you're going?" Nick asked even though he knew exactly why he was trying to leave.

"Oh, well, you know, I'm just feelin', a... uhh... lil' bit tired that's all" he nervously said. Nick wouldn't accept it.

"Nope, this is truth or dare, you _have to play_"

"Fine" Ellis sat down back on the little one-seated sofa and mumbled underneath his breath, eventually they had gotten the game started, and once it had started it was hard to stop, so far the most embarrassing, yet hilarious thing that happened was Coach having to dance to his favourite song while singing it, it was obviously One Bad Man by the Midnight Riders. Everyone was in hysterics, even Ellis was, and he loved the Midnight Riders.

"Ok, my turn now, I choose Zoey" Rochelle said.

"Oh man," Zoey chuckled in amusement not knowing what she would be doing next.

"Truth or Dare"

"I'm gonna go for truth"

"Okay, well this is kind of split into two questions. Number one, how old are you and number two have you ever had a boyfriend" Rochelle asked, winking at Ellis.

"I'm actually only 21, and no i've never had a boyfriend in my life, i've never been in a relationship" she answered truthfully, straight away Ellis was overjoyed, and he had to say something to let Zoey, and the group acknowledge him.

"Well damn, and I thought I was the youngest in the group"

"How old are you like?" Zoey asked

"I'm only 23, not too far off huh?" he said with a smile.

"And have you ever been in a relationship?" Rochelle asked laughing.

"Nah, never really had time on my hands for a girl, I was too busy hanging around, having fun, working at the garage and playin' pranks"

They continued playing, and soon it was pitch black, and everybody was either tired, cranky or both, but not Ellis, he was too busy being happy because he found out Zoey was only two years younger than him plus they had never been in a relationship before, it was like a dream come true, well marrying her would be a proper dream come true. Zoey was almost dozing off asleep into the couch when Rochelle came along and shook her awake "Zoey, sweetie, would you be fine sharing a room with Ellis again?"

"... what, yeah, he's a nice man..." she said, unaware of what she was saying due to being tired, Rochelle just laughed and helped her up off the couch into the room they were sharing.

Although it was dark inside the room, you could clearly make out the shape of two sleeping bags and a mattress in the far corner of the room. She took off her jacket and sneakers and socks so she was only wearing her tank-top, and jeans. Zoey raised her hands up in the air, and yawned, as she did a silhouette of a person rose from the floor "Zoey? That you" you could distinctly hear that it was Ellis' voice.

"Yeah"

"Uh, c-can I talk to you?"

"What do you wanna talk about?"

"That guy you mentioned earlier, Bill"

"... oh..."

"It's just that, when we met at the bridge 'n when we were filling up the generator, I saw him... I saw his body in the room beside the generator... and I read one of his badges, it said that is was awarded to him because of his bravery, courage and excellent leadership skills. And it got me thinkin' he must have been a really good man" Ellis explained. Zoey moved towards Ellis and sat down beside him on the floor and rested her back against the cold, smooth, wall. Ellis soon followed in her footsteps, and shuffled back to sit beside her too, with his back also against the wall. "Yeah, he was a good man; he was like the grandfather I never had, he'd always lead us in the right direction because he had the most life experience, plus he was a veteran in a war I think. But now that he's gone, I had to take the lead, and I don't think I can do that, especially because I lost Louis and Francis, what kind of leader do you think i'll be when they find me or if I find them? A crappy one I suppose"

"Nah, I don't think that, we all make mistakes"

"... yeah, I guess we do, but-"

"But what? You just need to have a bit more belief in ya, believe me, i'd never think i'd be able to pass my grades just for me to be a mechanic, but I believed and here I am... or was considering all those nasty sons-a-bitches zombies took over"

"Yeah... but the worst part was, we didn't know Bill was going to sacrifice himself, and I was really frustrated with him"

"Why is that?"

"Because he made us leave people behind to die, I never thought he was like that, and one of them was a doctor, that doctor could have helped us!" she nearly yelled in sadness. Tears started to flow down her cheek and Ellis was immediately surprised by her reaction even though he would know it wouldn't be nice. He relaxed himself against the wall, took his truckers-cap off, held it in his hands and bowed his head down. Zoey managed to wipe her tears from her eyes enough to see him bowed down; she looked at him, with a few tears still rolling down her cheek. "Mighty Lord..." he started "... tell our friend Bill, that Zoey is deeply sorry for her actions, let Bill know that, not only so that he can move on, but so if he feels guilty, that the guilt inside of him can perish into little pieces of happiness and respect. And also let the light shine upon Zoey and every other survivor that inhabits this world, and help them get through this time of guilt, fear and horror. In the name of the Lord, the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen" he prayed. Ellis lifted his head up and placed his hat back on his head.

Zoey's tears stopped falling, "Yeah, amen" she said. Unexpectedly, Zoey started to chuckle, Ellis was really surprised now, at first she was crying, now she was laughing at herself? "Man, I'm sorry, sometimes when I cry, I later realise it was stupid and I laugh at myself for being a wimp" she quietly laughed. Ellis smiled.

"Nah, sometimes you just gotta let it all out, y'know, if I cry, it makes me seem less of a man, but it don't really do it?" he asked. Zoey smiled and shook her head, an awkward silence fell between them, a one that not even Ellis could think of anything to say to break it, _Man oh man, she would make an even more of an awesome girlfriend when you come to think about it, then wife _Ellis repeated in his head _...and then mother, _Ellis smiled when this thought crossed his mind.

_He's so nice, i've never met anyone like it, I wonder what he's thinking?_

_Just imagine, me and Zoey together with kids... ho man, if our first baby is a boy we're gonna have to call him Jimmy after Jimmy Gibbs Jr! And if it's a girl we have to name her Jennifer! _He thought. Zoey interrupted the silence that fell between them, with a question she thought was important to her.

"Ellis, y'know that thing that spit acid out at me that you helped me from?"

"Yeah, Spitters"

"Earlier I said i've never seen them before, so if I haven't seen them, do you think there's other infected out there that I haven't seen"

"It's a possibility, tell you what, you tell me all the special infected you know, and i'll tell you if there's any I know that you haven't heard of"

"Okay, well I've seen Boomers, Hunters, Smokers, um... Tanks and Witches, and now the Spitter" she told him. Ellis counted on his fingers how many she has seen and heard of, but she was missing 2.

"Ho man, I can't believe you haven't said two others"

"Two others?"

"Yeah man, the Charger and the Jockey"

"Sound dangerous, what do they do?"

"Well" Ellis said, whilst placing his arm over her shoulder and bringing her closer to him "First of all Chargers, the clue's in the name, they have incredible strength and speed, once they have their eyes locked onto you, there's no way you can undo that, you're like their target. And when you are moderately spaced out between your friends, that is when they charge at ya at full speed! If you don't move quick enough they will bash you into a wall or something', then grab ya and pummel you into the ground like shit!" he explained "But, the good thing is, once you are their target and they start to charge it's hard for them to change direction, so if you just step aside they will go dashing into a fence or somethin'"

"Whoa, they do sound pretty dangerous, what does the Jockey do?" she asked, shifting herself closer to him in interest of what he was going to say, Ellis started to chuckle.

"Man, I dunno even how to explain this" he said in a light, humorous tone of voice "The clue is also in the name, human Jockey's ride horses, am I right? Well infected Jockeys ride _humans_, it's easy to recognise them because of their crazy maniacal laughter, plus they are really small and skittish, but evil. Anyways, when they ride you, they steer you into all sorts of crazy shit like Witches, Tanks and sometimes even off building ledges. But the thing that is making me laugh is, that when they ride you and steer you into stuff, it feels like they're humping your back, man, when I first got ridden on like that it felt like a human violation, man it looked _so wrong_!" he laughed, Zoey laughed along with him, then suddenly yawned, I guess all the talking she had done with him had made her tired.

"I knew I was tired, but I didn't know I was this tired" she chuckled.

"Yeah, me as well" Ellis yawned. Zoey stood up and moved towards a red, blue, green and white chequered sleeping bag "Hey, why don't ya take the mattress tonight?" he offered.

"No thanks, I don't wanna leave you on the cold floor in an un-comfy sleeping bag all by yourself, while I'm on a comfy mattress"

"Just take it; I don't really care if I'm un-comfortable anyways" he said. Zoey smiled, sighed and nodded as if to already give in with him, she paced her way back into the far corner of the room where the mattress was placed and lay down on it. Although it seemed a bit scruffy and dusty at the sides it was also quite comfortable and rather soft, but the one thing that bothered Zoey was that there was no duvet to cuddle into to get nice and warm.

_I know I'm tired... but I still want to talk to him... Zoey thought._

_Man, I wish she didn't get to go to bed now, I still wanna chat with her, she looks cold as well... man oh man I wish I could just cuddle her just to keep her warm _Ellis wondered.

Zoey crossed her arms and held them close to her chest to trap the warmth in her from escaping and shivered. Ellis could see her shivering, so he decided to head out of the room to fetch a little something for her. Nick was still sitting in the Living Room of the Safe-House reading a magazine with pictures of girls posing on nearly every page, he looked up only to notice Ellis heading out of the room. "What's up overalls?"

"Just lookin' for a lil something for- what the hell are you reading?" he interrupted himself from finishing his sentence, due to seeing a pretty girl posing on the front of the magazine. Nick looked at the front cover and laughed.

"What's the matter? Never read a magazine with pictures of beautiful girls posing on every page?" Nick asked.

"I haven't, actually, and I don't think I want to either" Ellis stated. Nick laughed again and put the magazine down on a small cabinet standing beside him, "but anyways, like I was saying, I was wonderin' if ya had seen a blanket lying around anywhere"

"Why do you need a blanket?"

"For Zoey because-"

"Zoey, huh? You two haven't been getting into anything un-holy have you?" Nick playfully teased. Ellis exactly knew what he was pointing out, despite the fact it when you do that it isn't un-holy, it's just considered as 'repopulating'.

"What the hell Nick? 'course we haven't been doin' that! We've just been talkin' that's all!" Ellis snapped back. "Can I continue? Zoey started to yawn, so I told her to take the mattress, but I saw her shiver so I decided to get her a nice warm duvet". Nick once again laughed and nodded, he walked behind the chair he was sitting in and pulled out a thick duvet and handed it to him. Ellis took the blanket happily, he turned around and just as he was about to head back into the room, Nick stopped him.

"Overalls, I wanna let you in on a little secret" he started. Ellis did stop and drew backwards from the door and back to Nick "You wanna score with this girl don't you?" he asked, Ellis nodded his head and Nick continued. "Well, to get in lucky with her, you gotta be by her side, not just mentally, but physically as well"

Ellis nodded in acknowledgement, even thought he must have only understand half of what Nick said.

Ellis headed back into the room; luckily Zoey hadn't fallen asleep yet and was still cold. He quietly approached her and gently covered the warm duvet over her; she tightly gripped the blanket and snuggled into it. He climbed back into his sleeping bag and smiled. She didn't even have to even turn around to know it was Ellis that done the good deed for her, "Thanks" she said in gratitude.

"No problem" he replied back.

_He is the nicest man i've ever met, I should have moved to the South ages ago, southern people are so nice... _Zoey thought.

The warmness of the duvet trapped Zoey in a cosy heaven, and the heat of the sleeping bag trapped Ellis in a warm heaven too. And it wasn't too long before they both had fallen asleep, only to dream of a paradise filled with fantasy things and make-believe people that was once real.

* * *

**Authors Notes: The fourth chapter is finally finished, as you can see friendships and relationships take time to develop, and this my friends, is a friendship/relationship bonding chapter. I hope you enjoyed it =)**


End file.
